Project Pumpkin

Here is my one and only Halloween decoration (not counting the cobwebs on the ceiling). It sits on the bookshelf all year long, since it doesn’t look that Halloween-y. I wonder if this is what Cinderella’s gown would have looked like if her fairy godmother had used the pumpkin for the dress instead of the carriage.

Last year I entered the Big Chain Craft Store’s fake pumpkin decorating contest. I didn’t win (boo!), but I did have fun with the project. It had been a long time since I’d done something crafty just for fun, and not related to a kid’s school project or some necessary home repair, like the mosaic of broken floor tiles that covers up my messed-up coffee table.

Anyway, this was easy to make. Or it would have been, if I had realized from the beginning that I could make the top of the dress out of a cut-off dish soap bottle (DOH!). Instead I shaped it out of a cut-up Wheat Thins box, and then covered it with sheet moss. The base is a dowel rod stuck in a wooden disc with a hole in the center, and the decorations are pulled apart silk flowers. The beads are held on with little brass pins, and the rest was put together with a generous amount of hot glue.

All these items were purchased at the Big Chain Craft Store, so I see how the pumpkin contest works out pretty well for them.